SMEs operating in the public sector market continue to face challenges including a lack of early industry engagement, too many procurement frameworks and a risk averse Civil Service, according to IT industry association techUK.
It has highlighted the problems in publishing the results of its latest GovTech Survey of SME members – carried out last year – saying there is a widespread feeling among them of being underused by government.
Among the findings was that only 27% of 100 SME respondents feel government has acted effectively on its commitment to help small firms break into the public sector over the past five years, down from 40% in the previous year’s survey.
Similarly, 92% did not think government has a sufficient understanding of how small businesses can meet its needs, 58% found it difficult to look across various frameworks and tender vehicles, and 93% believed not enough was being done to achieve the target of them accounting for a third of the digital spend.
Another key finding was that 76% said that addressing social value in contracts is an administrative burden.
Two positives
The survey brought out just two areas in which the outlook is more positive: 59% believe the Digital Marketplace has improved SME access to the market; and 51% felt that guidance from organisations hosting procurement frameworks had improved, up from 45% the previous year.
In response, techUK has made five recommendations for government in its approach to procurement: engage in more early pre-procurement market engagement; provide more support around social value; apply fewer frameworks; appoint ministerial SME champions who can understand the way small companies operate and their needs; and identify opportunities for collaborative bids and partnership to support SMEs.
Heather Cover-Kus, head of central government at techUK, said: “SMEs are vital to the UK economy, and in the tech sector they are a great source of innovation and ingenuity that the government should support and tap into. The GovTech Survey shows that there is still work to be done to capitalise on the benefits that working with SMEs can bring."
